Carol Balinski: Gender inequality continues in many religions

The first week of the new year was a study in contrasts for the progress of women.

In the same week that a record 102 women took office in the new U.S. Congress, an estimated 3.5 to 5 million Indian women formed a 385-mile human chain in protest of a religious tradition that prevents women from worshipping in a Hindu temple there.

On Jan. 1, women in the southern India state of Kerala formed the "women's wall" as a statement of gender equality and a call to end violent protests against women trying to enter Kerala's Sabarimala temple, a pilgrimage site for Hindus. According to a report on npr.org, a religious ban prevented women of menstruating age from entering the temple. Even after the country's Supreme Court ruled in favor of their entry in September, women attempting to enter were met with threats of violence.

The women's wall was organized by the Left Democratic Front, a coalition of political parties in Kerala. According to npr.org, no state money was used; the event was funded by independent women's organizations and by political parties in Kerala.

While such a ban against menstruating women seems antiquated here in the predominantly Christian U.S., some observers point out that unequal treatment of women exists in many religions.

"Discrimination Against Women Isn't Unique to Any One Religion" was the title of a 2017 article on www.huffingtonpost.com. Author Graham Perrett, a government official in Australia, argues that gender inequality continues to be a basis of much religious hierarchical power, regardless of whether a person is Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist.

Muslim women are segregated from men during worship services and are required to wear head coverings. In some countries, Muslim women are required to wear burqas to cover their bodies.

Perrett, who was raised Catholic, recalls that women once were required to wear veils during Mass; the rule is no longer in place. He also noted that women were not permitted to be altar servers until 1994. And, of course, the Catholic Church does not permit women to become priests.

Even in Christian denominations where women can serve as pastors, there are lingering vestiges of resistance and negativity, which was the subject of a two-part column I wrote last year in which local women pastors shared their experiences.

An opinion piece on www.washingtonpost.com asked "Why is it Okay to Discriminate Against Women for Religious Reasons?" Author Amanda Bennett said extreme practitioners of many faiths cite Old Testament statements that women become unclean during their menstrual periods and and men must avoid physical contact or risk defilement.

Bennett also wrote about her own experience in a business setting where an Orthodox Jewish man refused to shake her hand because his religion forbids him to touch women outside of his family. She pointed out that some Orthodox Jewish scholars permit moderation, granting dispensation from strict gender-segregation policies for travel or work purposes. But, she said, a vocal minority of Orthodox Jews in Israel have demanded segregated transportation.

Thomas Reese, an author writing a blog for the National Catholic Reporter in 2016, said "Support for religious freedom often appears to be in conflict with women's rights, both in the United States and abroad."

He cited the debate over the contraception health care mandate in the U.S. in which the religious freedom rights of employers have been set against the rights of women employees. This conflict, he said, will have to be worked out in the courts.

But, Reese sees other areas where women's rights and religious freedom go hand and hand such as the subject of international religious freedom. For example, he said proponents of religious freedom and women's rights can both agree that the practice of forced conversion and marriages of abducted girls is wrong.

"Religious freedom in its true meaning empowers women to decide for themselves what they will believe and empowers them to challenge the teachings of their own religion if they don't like the way it treats women," Reese said. "Any restrictions on the right of women to challenge religious beliefs and practices are violations of their religious freedom."